Many have wondered why Aime Mabika, a player whose naturalization caused the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) to panic for over a year, has been forgotten so fast without even making his competitive debut for Chipolopolo.
The defender, who plays for Major League Soccer club Toronto FC, was born in Zambia to Congolese parents before relocating to the United States of America. In 2022, he expressed his desire to play for Zambia.
Mabika, together with British-born defender Frankie Musonda, pledged allegiance to play for Zambia in March 2022. The two made their debuts in two friendly matches against Benin and Congo Brazzaville but only Musonda was issued a Zambian passport later that year.
It took over a year for the Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security to award Mabika a Zambian passport, a thing many thought could have led to the 25-year-old getting frustrated.
Even before he received his passport, Chipolopolo coach Avram Grant included him in his squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, hoping that his naturalization would be completed before the games began.
After over a year, on June 8, 2023, FAZ Secretary General Reuben Kamanga announced that Mabika had finally been awarded the passport. That meant he was now eligible to play for the Chipolopolo Boys.
Surprisingly, in September, Grant did not call him for the Comoros match and said: “He is not here, so I don’t want to speak about players who are not here…. But I have said even to the players that we have today that for them to be in the squad, they need to have three things: first, quality; second, passion; and third, the desire to represent the country. Maybe what I said is one of the reasons [he is not here with us].”
Grant’s latest statement on Mabika
Since September, the player has not been called to the national team and when asked on Monday last week, Grant said the towering defender is not playing. That’s why he did not call him for the four-nation tournament set to kick off from March 18–26, 2024, where Zambia will face Zimbabwe.
“When he was injured, I told you that he was injured, what do you want me to tell you? That he is good?” responded Grant.
He continued, “I always tell you the truth but now he is on the bench for his club and not playing. And I don’t want to talk about players who are not on the team.”
The former Chelsea FC manager also said, “I want to remind you about the criteria I use to select players: quality, passion in the game, and the desire to represent your country unconditionally. I think they [players] need to feel like me. I was not born in Zambia but I feel proud to represent the country because it’s a privilege. They need to be proud. The national team is very important, more than anybody.”
Meanwhile, various sources have told BolaNews that the player became unhappy after his passport was delayed for more than a year, and he felt unwanted.
It is also understood that his frustration caused Grant to become furious, as he breached a fundamental rule about being called to the national team: the desire to play for the team unconditionally.
As it stands, he is unlikely to be called again, especially given that he has yet to play a single game for Toronto this year, appearing on the bench only four times.
